Faculty Research Poster Session and Research Fair Proceedings

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Using iPads with a Student-Run Firm to Enhance Learning and Client Work
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Kinsky, Emily; Bruce, Kimberly R.
Students in WTAMU’s student-run public relations firm, 1910 PR, were offered an iPad Pro with an attached keyboard and Apple Pencil for one month last spring as part of a collaboration between the university CIO and the Dean of the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities. Their use of the iPads was part of a test before expanding the initiative across other classes in the fall. Having the latest iPad Pro in their hands gave students an opportunity to learn the best uses for a professional tool as they completed coursework and client work, such as content creation, social media management, media relations, and event planning.
Absorption Water Treatment Potential of Crop-Waste Biochar Made by Controlled and Uncontrolled Pyrolysis: An Investigation into Converting Biowaste to Bioresource for the Developing World
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Pimentel, Andy; Bhattacharia, Sanjoy K.; Howell, Nathan
Access to clean water is an issue that persists in many developing countries. Available water is often polluted from inadequately treated agricultural, industrial, and human wastes. There are many ways to address environmental challenges for polluted water including source water protection, altering the use patterns of water, and treating heavily polluted water sources before they mix with other, cleaner waters. Employing water protection and water treatment strategies in developing world contexts in particular is often challenging due to a lack of financial resources, industrial infrastructure, and technical know-how. One approach to bridge the gap between the developed “well resourced” world and the developing “limited resource” world is to make use of materials readily available, even waste materials, to treat water and minimize solid and hazardous waste generation. Biochar is such an application of this approach. It is a microporous, carbon-rich adsorbent material that can be made from any virtually any kind of waste biomass or other waste organic material. Since many developing world communities are highly agrarian, people in those communities have access to a large amount of crop and animal waste which can be used as biochar feedstock. In our study, we made crop-waste (rice hull, pecan shell, cottonseed) biochar using temperature-controlled pyrolysis in a muffle furnace (MF) reminiscent of the kinds of high technology, high resource process in the developed world. We contrast that with biochars made from a simple and easily built top-lift updraft (TLUD) pyrolysis process that would not be difficult for developing world communities to appropriate in their local context with biomass they have on hand. We looked specifically at the contrasting abilities of these two types of biochar, MF and TLUD, to adsorb cationic and anion colored dyes in water through controlled shaking experiments. Quantitative examination of the amount of dye that can be removed, on different biochar, and at differing pH helped to discern the mechanism of adsorptive interaction on the biochars. We then relate the way the biochar was made, in light of the material from which it was made, to the adsorptive performance we saw in the dyes. These comparisons provide fundamental understanding into the nature of ionic pollutant surface interactions on biochars. This understanding can be used to design treatment processes for industrial, sanitary, storm-, and agricultural wastewater in both developing and developed worlds.
Strategic Pedagogy: Pursuing Best Practices for Teaching Asychronous Online Health Economics Courses
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Meredith, Neil
This chapter employs eight years of experience and research to develop recommended best practices for choosing a textbook, producing videos, role-playing discussion forums and random block examinations when teaching health economics online asynchronously. Best practice recommendations include picking a textbook that has prebuilt slides, fits the student audience, provides some practice exercises, and has a relatively long shelf life. For video production, I recommend developing a high-quality, short introduction video and producing as many minimal editing videos as possible. I recommend role-playing discussion forum use to improve learning and engagement in discussion forums. I also recommend employing random block examinations with a time constraint and visibility constraint to deter academic dishonesty. I conclude with a final recommendation for other helpful resources such as the Teaching Health Economics Special Interest Group within the International Health Economics Association.
Virtual Manipulatives in Mathematics Interventions for Students with Mathematics Difficulties
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Shin, Mikyung; Simmons, Michelle; Goode, Frank; Meador, Audrey; Deal, Alexa; Jackson, Tammye
Using a multiple-probe single-case research design, this study will investigate the effects of virtual manipulative-based explicit instruction on the accuracy and quantitative reasoning of multiplying fractions word problems of middle school students with mathematics difficulties. A total of five middle school students who meet the following inclusion criteria will be invited to participate in this study: (a) be in middle school, (b) provide parental consent and child assent for the study, (c) perform below the 25th percentile (Cirino, Fuchs, Elias, Powell, & Schumacher, 2015) on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH) Applied Problems (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2007), (d) perform below the 25th percentile on the easy CBM benchmark assessment (Alonzo, Tindal, Ulmer, & Glasgow, 2006), and (e) demonstrate a deficit relative to the target skill, by earning a score below 30% on a researcher-developed screening test of word problems involving multiplication with fractions.
Characterizing Monotone Games
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Barthel, Ann-Christine; Hoffman, Eric
Solution concepts in games of strategic heterogeneity (GSH), which include games of strategic complements (GSC) as a special case, have been shown to possess very useful properties, such as the existence of highest and lowest serially undominated strategies, and the equivalence of the stability of equilibria and dominance solvability. The main result of this paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for when a very general class of games, referred to as games of mixed heterogeneity (GMH), can be transformed into GSH in such a way so that these properties are preserved, allowing us to draw the same strong conclusions about solution sets in games that are not originally GSH. This is achieved by reversing the orders on the actions spaces of a given subset of players. Our second main result shows, rather surprisingly, that under mild conditions on the underlying ordering of action spaces, the reversal of orders is the only way in which such a transformation can be achieved. Applications to aggregate games, market games, and crime networks are given.
A Campaign to Improve Seasonal Flu Immunization Compliance in a University Nursing Health and Wellness Clinic
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Reyes, Helen; Loftin, Collette; Hartin, Vicki
Abstract Seasonal influenza can result in enormous physical and economic burdens. Healthy People 2020 reports that substantially fewer than the recommended 70% in most age groups actually receive the immunization (Bekkat-Berkani & Romano-Massotti, 2018). The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the WTAMU Nursing Health and Wellness Clinic seasonal flu campaign was considered advantageous to those who received it on campus. A brief survey was developed for distribution to those who received the influenza immunization during the 2018-2019 flu season. Making the flu vaccine convenient and inexpensive/free has been an effective mechanism to improve immunization acceptance in our community. Response rate for the survey was 61% or 106 individuals with 47 (44%), reporting that they would not have sought out the seasonal flu immunization had it not been made available on the university campus. More importantly, when the 106 participants were asked where on campus they received their immunization, only 43 (41%) physically came to the nursing clinic, while 63 (59%) were provided the vaccine in their departmental workplace. Of those individuals receiving immunization in their office or workplace, 24 (38%) reported that had it not been provided in this venue, they would not have gone to the nursing clinic or elsewhere to be immunized. Of those responding to the survey, 65 individuals reported having received an influenza immunization during the 2017-2018 season. The remaining 41 respondents either could not recall or denied receiving the vaccine. However, when asked about their intentions to be immunized in the 2019-2020 season, 98 participants related positive intention to receive the seasonal flu immunization.
Culinary Literacy and Parasocial Interaction Relationships: The Role of Hispanic Celebrity Chefs in Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Albarran, Paola
The phenomenon of celebrity chefs is a vibrant area of study, and previous research has demonstrated it with studies focusing on audience participation, masculinity, and food criticism. However, despite the ubiquity of celebrity chefs in the media, there are limited data related to parasocial relationships, healthy eating, and the influence of Hispanic celebrity chefs in modern society. Due to this lack of scholarly research, this research examines the phenomenon of the potential of Spanish-language celebrity chefs to become role models and promote a healthy lifestyle in Hispanics living in the United States. Building on the theory of social cognitive theory, parasocial relationships, and identification, this research aims to investigate the exposure of adults to celebrity chef television programs, to assess the influence these figures have and how they are perceived. This study explores the intersection of Hispanic celebrity chefs and parasocial relationships by conducting a quantitative analysis of the influence of celebrity chefs on individuals’ lifestyles habits, complemented by a qualitative study of eight Hispanic celebrity chefs who are using healthy techniques to increase individual behavioral changes. This study offers a unique insight into understanding the behavioral and psychological impact celebrity chefs can have on audiences. The effect of celebrity chefs could be greater to those who experience and are prone to higher levels of identification; thus, this article offers some thoughts on positive health outcomes stemming from this phenomenon. Understanding the implications of celebrity chefs as role models can further research on entertainment-education approaches and mass media-based health initiatives.
Data Driven High Performance Data Access
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Ramljak, Dusan;
Low-latency, high throughput mechanisms to retrieve data become increasingly crucial as the cyber and cyber-physical systems pour out increasing amounts of data that often must be analyzed in an online manner. Generally, as the data volume increases, the marginal utility of an ``average'' data item tends to decline, which requires greater effort in identifying the most valuable data items and making them available with minimal overhead. We believe that data analytics-driven mechanisms have a big role to play in solving this needle-in-the-haystack problem. We rely on the claim that efficient pattern discovery and description, coupled with the observed predictability of complex patterns within many applications offers significant potential to enable many I/O optimizations. Our research covers exploitation of storage hierarchy for data driven caching and tiering, reduction of distance between data and computations, removing redundancy in data, using sparse representations of data, the impact of data access mechanisms on resilience, energy consumption, storage usage, and the enablement of new classes of data driven applications. For caching and prefetching, we offer a powerful model that separates the process of access prediction from the data retrieval mechanism. Predictions are made on a data entity basis and used the notions of ``context'' and its aspects such as ``belief'' to uncover and leverage future data needs. This approach allows truly opportunistic utilization of predictive information. We elaborate on which aspects of the context we are using in areas other than caching and prefetching different situations and why it is appropriate in the specified situation. We present in more detail the methods we have developed, BeliefCache for data driven caching and prefetching and AVSC for pattern mining based compression of data. In BeliefCache, using a belief, an aspect of context representing an estimate of the probability that the storage element will be needed, we developed modular framework BeliefCache, to make unified informed decisions about that element or a group. For the workloads, we examined we were able to capture complex non-sequential access patterns better than a state-of-the-art framework for optimizing cloud storage gateways. Moreover, our framework is also able to adjust to variations in the workload faster. It also does not require a static workload to be effective since modular framework allows for discovering and adapting to the changes in the workload. In AVSC, using an aspect of context to gauge the similarity of the events, we perform our compression by keeping relevant events intact and approximating other events. We do that in two stages. We first generate a summarization of the data, then approximately match the remaining events with the existing patterns if possible, or add the patterns to the summary otherwise. We show gains over the plain lossless compression for a specified amount of accuracy for purposes of identifying the state of the system and a clear tradeoff between the compressibility and fidelity. In other mentioned research areas we present challenges and opportunities with the hope that will spur researchers to further examine those issues in the space of rapidly emerging data intensive applications. We also discuss the ideas on how our research in other domains could be applied in our attempts to provide high performance data access.
The Impact of Self-Control and Texting-Related Accidents on the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Mobile Texting While Driving Behavior
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) RAMOS SALAZAR, LESLIE; Khandelwal, Priyanka
The safety dangers of texting while driving are well-known in the literature, as such, it is important to understand the relationships between mindfulness, self-control, and texting while driving behavior. Prior research has conducted correlational work among these constructs; however, this study found that acting with awareness and observing were inversely related to texting while driving. This study examined the relationship between mindfulness, self-control, texting-related accidents, and texting while driving. Several findings were illustrated from this study including: 1) mindfulness (awareness and observe) were inversely associated to texting while driving behavior, 2) self-control mediated the inverse relationship between mindfulness and texting while driving behavior, and 3) texting-related accidents moderated the relationship between mindfulness and texting while driving behavior. Data consisted of 608 adult drivers who completed an online questionnaire using the measures of the study. Analyses conducted included correlations, multiple regression, and moderated regression. Findings suggested that self-control showed promise as a possible mediator of the relationship between mindfulness and texting while driving. And, texting-related accidents also moderated the relationship between mindfulness and texting while driving, which informs us of the importance of studying text-related accidents. Implications are also offered to stimulate future research to better understand mindfulness, self-control, and texting while driving behavior.
Prediction Model of Disparities in Health Coverage Among Psychiatric Inpatients
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Omary, Areen
The goal of this study was to examine the demographics sex and marital status of inpatients with schizophrenia and bipolar and compare differences in patients’ chances of possessing adequate health coverage to cover hospital expenses. Data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey was extracted and analyzed. For hospital discharges of patients age 18 and older 702,626 hospital discharges were included in the study representing a weighted population of 77,082,738 hospital discharges. Prediction model was applied to test the ability of the independent variables sex and marital status to predict differences in health coverage in multinomial logistic regression (MLR) test. Results indicate that sex and marital status were significant predictors of health coverage type that the patient owned. Male, unmarried, and with unknown marital status patients were more likely to be either uninsured or publicly insured. Public health policy legislation efforts need to address public-health-insurance provisions that limit the coverage of treatment for psychiatric patients.
Sustainability Leadership Competencies
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Yarbrough, Jillian R.
Sustainable development is defined by the Bundtland Commissions of the United Nations (March 20, 1987) as, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” For businesses, this means the management and coordination of environmental, social and financial needs should occur in such a way as to ensure ethical and ongoing operations for the immediate and the future. Recent years have seen a significant increase in stakeholder pressure on firms to not only be economically sustainable but also to operate from an environmentally and socially responsible perspective (Wingarten, Lo and Lam, 2017). With an increased global focus on sustainability, the need for concrete sustainability-based guidance from organizational leaders is intensifying. For businesses, to meet sustainability expectations, leadership and management must have the ability to coordinate and manage environmental, social and financial needs, both immediate and long term. Based on interviews with leaders engaged in sustainability efforts and an extensive review of the literature, the researcher will present leadership characteristics that are important for current and future sustainability-based organizations. Further, recommendations will be made specifically for supporting sustainability and developing new sustainability leadership.
Flipped Classroom Activities' Effect on Student Self-Efficacy for AAC
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Collom, Zeth E.
Self-efficacy is positively correlated with clinical performance. There are few studies investigating if specific pedagogical approaches influence speech-language pathology graduate students' self-efficacy in a particular domain of service provision or strategy use. This study investigated if a flipped classroom's activities increased student reported self-efficacy for augmentative-alternative communication clinical skills across several subdomains using pre- and post-course questionnaires developed by the instructor. Preliminary analysis indicates that students' self-efficacy improved for treatment skills but not in assessment and foundational knowledge. Also, qualitative analysis indicates that pair-explore-share activities using podcasts made a greater impact than a formal professional conference in a particular AAC approach.
Investigating the Effects of Oak Spiral Aging on Beer ABV and IBU
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Flynn, Nick
Prior studies have identified a decrease in ABV and an increase in IBU associated with oak spiral aging in beers. Initial results indicated that the ABV decrease was because of oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid due to resealing of bottles, while the IBU increase was proposed to be due to oak components that dissolved in aged beer. In this study, commercial beer samples were opened, allowed to sit for 30 seconds and resealed. Additionally, an oak spiral was added to a 5.00 % aqueous solution of ethanol. After three weeks, there was no difference in ABV or acetic acid content in the opened bottles when compared to bottles that remained sealed. The oak spiral ethanol solution exhibited a decrease in ABV similar to that found in our prior studies. Both UV-Visible spectra and A275 absorbance of this same solution indicate that oak spirals contribute a significant amount of absorbance at 275 nm thus confirming that oak components contributed to the IBU increase. In conclusion, oak spirals do appear to decrease beer ABV in an oxidation-independent fashion while concomitantly increasing IBU values using the A275 IBU method.
Impact of Sustained Scholarship: Enduring Opportunities for High-Quality Education
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Coneway, Betty; Hwang, Sang; Lyounghee, Kim
Abstract: The mixed-methods research study was designed to identify outcomes of sustained scholarship support on a targeted group of students. The investigation explored the influence of receiving ongoing scholarship funds on the recipients, their families, and on the school’s culture. The identified sample of students attended a non-profit private preschool and was then awarded a scholarship to attend a private, faith-based preparatory institution serving students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade in a rural hub city. Two scholarships are given annually to preschool students who have demonstrated academic potential and whose families actively engage in their child’s education. Data was collected from 26 study participants from three subgroups: 1) adult and minor scholarship recipients, 2) parents of scholarship recipients, and 3) faculty and staff of the preparatory school. Adult participants responded to online survey questions, while minor recipients were asked face-to-face interview questions at the school. Data analysis revealed that diversification of the student population by race, background, and socio-economic may help students identify more easily with the world around them and be more accepting of different cultures. Analysis of the data also highlighted that even though the scholarship funds covered the students’ tuition, there were additional expenses that were sometimes prohibitive for the scholarship recipients, such as school uniforms, field trips, and unplanned costs. Conclusions drawn from the data reveal that a positive school culture enables all students to feel a sense of belonging, participate actively in the educational community, and develop meaningful social relationships.
A Novel Air Purification Technology: Assessment on the Reduction of Aeroallergen, Dander and Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5)
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Ghosh, Nabarun
One of the top environmental concerns of the world today is air pollution. It is affecting our health every day. There is a gradual rise in allergy and asthma cases all over the world. Particulate matter of size 2.5 microns are a major health concern of the present decade since when inhaled they can reach deep into our lungs and tissues via the bloodstreams. PM 2.5 stands for the Particulate Matter 2.5 floating in the air that is the size of 2.5 microns. In this study, we analyzed the aeroallergen and the PM 2.5 in the Texas panhandle and conduct studies with AHPCO nanotechnology to reduce the aeroallergen. There are a high number of fibers coming from the feedlots. Pollen is not the only microscopic aeroallergen that affects humans; there are fibers, Trichrome (plant hair), insect parts and more. All of these PM 2.5 aeroallergens can affect human health. Humans spend most of their time indoors; bio analyzing PM 2.5 and using air purifiers inside can help maintain cleaner air indoors. I used a Leica DM-750 Digital microscope with LAS V4.9 to analyze the PM 2.5 and the aeroallergen that are prevalent in the Texas panhandle. Allergies, asthma and hospitalizations for respiratory diseases are rising worldwide caused by air pollution of aerosols in the form of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) in correlation with other aeroallergens. The PM 2.5 is largely responsible for air pollution all over the world, which leads to serious health hazards and death because of its size. Studies on improvement of outdoor air quality are extremely important for everyone’s health. There are many reports of poor air quality measuring above the prescribed safe level found in Beijing in China, Delhi in India, Istanbul in Turkey, Hanoi in Vietnam, Southeastern Brazil, Los Angeles and New York in the U.S. In some locations like Beijing, wearing a mask during commutes is common practice because of high pollution concentration of PM 2.5. Advances have been made in the air purification system by using the Advanced Hydrated Photocatalytic Oxidation (AHPCO) and Plasma-technology used in the unit called i-Adapt developed by Air Oasis in Amarillo, Texas. We measured the natural rate of decay and compared that to the i-Adapt unit to assess the proficiency of this newly developed air purification unit. After the fans ran for 24 hours the unit i-Adapt was turned on and reading of PM 2.5 representing the air quality was taken at 24, 72, and 120 hours with a Temtop M2000C air quality meter. Our evaluation and assessment with aeroallergens like pollen and molds, fibers and dander showed that the i-Adapt air purifier stands in the front of the world’s air purification system involving a hybrid technology to improve the indoor air quality. Further studies should be conducted to establish the applications of the i-Adapt Unit to the various facets of our lives.
Cybersecurity: Using Machine Learning Algorithms to Detect SQL Injection Attacks
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Subburaj, Vinitha Hannah; Pham, Binh A.
Cybersecurity is a prevailing issue across the nation. In the twenty-first century, almost everyone around the globe is using at least one of the internet websites that contain his/her private information. Since privacy concerns us, this research effort focuses on one of the most recent cyber-attacks which is the SQL injection (SQLi) attacks. As a result of SQL injection attack on websites, data could be destroyed, stolen, or manipulated. SQL injection attacks are done by injecting despicable SQL statements through the entry field of the website or the application; thus, manipulating the database. SQL injection attacks had proven their danger on several website types such as social media, e-shopping, etc... In order to prevent such attacks from occurring, this research effort investigates on efficient ways of detection and prevention, so we can preserve each cyber-user’s right to privacy. This research effort is aimed at investigating and looking at different ways to protect websites from SQL injection attacks. In this research effort, machine learning algorithms were used to detect such SQLi attacks. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are algorithms that can learn from the data provided and infer interesting results from the dataset. We have used SQL code as our data and ML algorithms to detect malicious code. The machine learning model developed in this research can detect such attacks from happening in the future. The precision and accuracy of the machine learning algorithms in terms of predicting the SQLi attacks have been calculated and reported in this research paper.
Economic Analysis of Li-Ion Battery Energy Storage System
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Preciado, David; Petterson, Pham; Subburaj, Anitha S.; Subburaj, Vinitha Hannah
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) serve as vital elements in deploying renewable energy sources into electrical grids in addition to enhancing the transient dynamics of those power grids. Application Program is developed to simulate outputs for the optimal action to take place.
An Experiential Learning Approach to Media and News Literacy
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Garcia, Nancy; Spikes, Michael
Generation Z students, born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, have had technology since a young age and are comfortable with the Internet and social media, but are not necessarily media literate, and when it comes to service, they are focused on solving problems. With this in mind, a media literacy experiential learning project was incorporated as a component of an upper level undergraduate course. The goal of this project was to provide college students with the tools necessary to think critically about media content by leading workshops for students in two local high schools. The students enrolled in the course were exposed to the concepts of information and misinformation, social media in journalism, and information literacy before reviewing three core lessons: 1) Deconstructing the News and Evaluating Sources, 2) Balance, Fairness, and Bias, and 3) Truth and Verification. To gather data, the students enrolled in the upper level undergraduate course completed a news literacy skill assessment and a personal reflection. The results of the assessment indicated the students’ knowledge to be above the emerging or intermediate level when it comes to identifying credible sources. However, results also showed that the students’ knowledge is below emerging or intermediate level when it comes to identifying methods of different types of media and news, evaluating reliability of sources, and determining whether the information provided is fair and balanced. On the other hand, the student reflections indicated advocacy of media and news literacy lessons and recognition of personal knowledge deficits when it comes to media and news literacy. The results of this experiential learning project highlight the importance of combining new models of engaged learning with frameworks for media and news literacy.
Improve Employee-Organization Relationships (EOR) and Workplace Performance Through CSR: Insights from an Electric and Energy Company in China
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Zhang, Dr. Yafei
This study examined the impact of employee perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their employee-organization identification (EOI), corporate ability (CA), employee-organization relationships (EOR), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results, based on a survey (N = 248) with employees from a large, private company in the electric and energy industry in China, revealed that employee perceptions of CSR were positively associated with EOI, CA, EOR, and OCB. In addition, there was a positive spillover effect between CSR and CA. Findings also indicated the positive associations between CA and EOR, and EOI and OCB. This study contributes to the scant research on employee-centered CSR and suggests CSR as an effective strategy to cultivate relationships with employees and to increase their work performance in the Chinese context.
Egypt's Reliance on Imported Wheat: Concerns, Challenges and Opportunities
(WTAMU Cornette Library, 2020-03-05) Kandagatla, Raghu; Almas, Lal K.
This exploratory study aims at the evaluation of different aspects of food security and provides insights and valuable information about concerns, challenges and opportunities for agricultural production especially wheat in Egypt. With a population of 96 million and annual population growth at 2.27%, Egypt is considered one of the fastest-growing nations in the African continent. Egypt’s total land area is 1,000,450 sq. km and the population covers only the 10 percent while the rest of the country is desert. The agriculture sector of Egypt is a major component of the Egyptian economy, contributing 14.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The agricultural sector accounts for 28 percent of all jobs, and over 55 percent of employment in Upper Egypt is agriculture-related. Egypt’s agriculture sector is dominated by small farms using traditional practices. Field crops contribute about 75 % of the total value of Egypt’s agricultural production, while the rest comes from livestock products, fruits and vegetables, and other specialty crops. Major field crops include corn (maize), rice, wheat, sorghum, and fava (broad) beans. Despite a considerable output, the cereal production in Egypt falls short of the country’s total consumption. A substantial amount of foreign exchange is spent annually on the import of cereals and milling products. Egypt is one of the major producers of wheat in Africa, with 8.8 million tons in 2017 against its consumption of 18.96 million tonnes. Hence, Egypt is the second-largest importer in the world with more than 10 million tonnes in 2017. One of the main challenges of wheat production in Egypt is the available land area. The total arable area is 3.3 million hectares. It is extremely productive and can be cropped two or even three times per year. Most land is cropped at least twice a year, but agricultural productivity is limited by salinity, which afflicts an estimated 35% of cultivated land, and drainage problems. Another challenge to Egypt’s agriculture is the shortage of water. Water is a very scarce resource in the region, the major source of this essential commodity is the Nile River. The second threat and the most imminent is the growth of the population. By 2050, Africa’s population is expected to grow by an additional 1.3 billion people, the equivalent of today’s China. For the case of Egypt, the population is expected to reach over 100 million in 2025, lowering the per capita water availability from 1123 m3 in 1990 to 630 m3 in 2025. This shows that the challenge now for Egypt is to look for perennial solutions to lower its dependency on the Nile water supply and to find sustainable alternatives like desalination. This study focuses on the demand and supply determinants of wheat by using data from 1961 through 2017 and to identify strategies to reduce the gap between country's wheat production and imports in the future in order to address food security challenges and curtail its heavy reliance on imported wheat. The statistical procedures have been applied to analyze and predict the production and consumption of wheat given the estimated population growth of the country up until 2050. The study also provides an overview of all the available opportunities and challenges facing agricultural production and different aspects of food security in Egypt.

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